Sunday, May 4, 2014

where can you meet Jesus?

May
my words be in the Name of the Holy & Undivided Trinity: +
Father, Son, & Holy Spirit. Amen.

After
it is all over, when Jesus has left them,the two disciples who encountered him on the road to Emmaus say to each other: ‘Were
not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the
road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?'
Every time I read about this wonderful and mysterious journey from
Jerusalem to Emmaus, I find myself wishing that something like this
could happen to me – wouldn't it be great if Christ himself would
come up to me at a time of doubt and confusion and fill me with joy
and strength?

Part
of the mystery of the story lies in the fact that we don't really
know where Emmaus is. Oh, if you were to take one of those guided
tours of the Holy Land I am sure the tour-guide would take you
somewhere and tell you with absolutely certainty that this was the
actual place where those two disciples broke bread with the Lord. But
the truth is, we don't really know. Scholars speculate, as is their
job, and come up with candidates, but there is no consensus. It
doesn't really matter. The only thing that matters is that it was
seven miles from Jerusalem, close enough to walk to in an evening
before it got too dark.

We
also don't know who the disciples were. We are given the name of one,
Cleopas, but no other details. The name Cleopas does occur again in
John's gospel, but that is an artefact of translation. In the
original Greek the two names are different. Again, scholars have
speculated but come to no conclusions. It seems likely the pair were
close disciples. From their words to Christ at the beginning of the
journey they seem to have a very good knowledge of what was going on;
and at the end of the story we learn that they have immediate access
to the remaining Apostles, so clearly they are well known to them.
And of course Jesus appears to them on their journey. Perhaps they
were amongst the 70 who were sent out? One list of the 70 that I came
across includes a Cleopas, but that doesn't prove it is this one. But
they must have been important members of the group of early
Christians, even if they were not among the inner-most circle.

And
they are despondent. The detail in the story 'on the same day' tells
us that this is Easter Day, the day of the Resurrection. But instead
of being joyful, they are full of confusion and despair. Their
reaction to the women saying that Jesus has risen is to get out of
Jerusalem as soon as they can. And listen to their summary to our
Lord of all that has happened - 'Jesus
was a prophet,'
they tell him, 'mighty
in word and deed; but our leaders crucified him. We had hoped he
might be the redeemer. Some of the women say he has risen from the
dead, but when some of the others went to look they saw nothing.'

And
Jesus begins to speak to them; he explains to them from the
Scriptures why it was that things had to be this way. Their journey
to Emmaus becomes far more than one from Jerusalem to an outlying
village; it becomes a journey from fear and doubt to joy and hope, a
journey from confusion to faith and belief. As the two later say,
their hearts beging to burn within them. So much so that when the time
comes for them to part with this stranger, they don't want him to
leave. 'Stay with us,' they urge. 'It is late, the day is
almost over.' They don't know who he is, but they don't want the
one who has filled them with such hope to leave them. And it is not
until the breaking of the bread that they realise who he is.

And
what happens next? Well, after Jesus is gone, they are so excited by
the encounter that they rush back to Jerusalem – despite the
lateness of the hour, so late that not long before they were telling
the 'stranger' that it was too late to journey further. They travel
the seven miles back to the city in the dark and find the eleven
apostles gathered together – no doubt in the upper room we hear of
in John's gospel, where they gathered together for fear of the Jews –
and are greeted with the news that Simon Peter has also seen the
Risen Lord and they excitedly share the story of their encounter.

I
love that story. As I said in beginning, I wish that I could have an encounter like the Risen
Christ as Cleopas and his friend did, especially when things aren't
going well, or when I'm filled with fears and doubts. And then I
realise that I can. Any time I wish I can pick up a copy of the
Scriptures and encounter the living Christ in God's word; and in the
sacrament of the Holy Eucharist I can, like they, recognise him in
the breaking of the bread. He was the one who said he was the bread
come down from heaven, that his body was real food and his blood real
drink, who blessed the bread and broke it at the Last Supper, and
gave it to his disciples saying 'This is my Body.' Cleopas and his
friend left Jerusalem that day because they thought Jesus was dead,
that he had left them, that it was all over. Jesus opened the
scriptures to them and revealed himself in the breaking of the bread
so that they might know that it was not over, and that he would never
leave them. Just as he will never leave us as we each day and each
moment walk our own road to Emmaus with our Lord walking by our side – and
I pray your heart will burn within you, like theirs, all your days. Amen.

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About Me

Hi, I'm Paddy (the Rev Patrick G. Burke), a priest in the Church of Ireland. The title of the blog is from a description of me in a letter my grandmother wrote to my mother in 1965 when I was three! May God richly bless you and those whom you love today and everyday. Amen.